Letters to the editor

The median and a message

A suggestion to council to save thousands of dollars: don't put the median back on Blackcomb Way!

1. Both ambulances and fire trucks have better access if there is not a median. In the winter, when snow banks limit the width of the road, this is especially important.

2. It's safer because pedestrians who are already streaming across Blackcomb Way from Lot 4 can more easily be seen.

3. The Celebration Plaza will continue to be a site for public events. The same transportation needs that necessitated removal of the median will continue to exist during large public events.

4. Additional dollars saved each year because no need to mow, weed, trim, edge and clean up the median landscaping.

That would more than cover the parking fees the municipality now must extract from us locals. I was appalled to discover that though paid underground parking was being reassessed, the SmartPark rate had still doubled. I've lived hear for 20 years and never felt so gouged as I have by the change in parking.

Let's see: a recession so most incomes are down, real estate taxes going up double digit, (HST is another doubling of the tax to come) - let's charge the locals more for parking!

Unlike those whose salary is adjusted up for nonexistent inflation (BNN reports slight deflation), many locals have seen incomes, rents, retail sales, hours and tips decline in the last year. So would council consider leaving out the median and allowing us to have affordable parking?

Tricia Beauregard

Whistler

The epitaph of humanity

I want to thank Max for writing, "Welcome home, troops" (Pique, Maxed Out Aug. 13). He often leaves useful openings in his columns and his statement "I don't know what the appropriate role should be for Canada's military" left an opening large enough to drive a tank through. I know our technology has "improved" so that we are beyond beating our "swords into plowshares" but I would suggest we really should begin converting our tanks to tractors and training fighters to be farmers.

Also in the Aug. 13
Pique
Jim Horner wrote a letter urging us to read the "adopt-a-fry" letter by Alexandra Morton; and to ask for help producing and distributing "adopt-a-fry" fliers during the Olympics. A couple days prior to the distribution of
Pique
, DFO announced the Fraser River salmon fishery was closed because there were virtually no fish returning to the river. Meanwhile, our defense minister proudly announced he purchased, on our behalf, a multi-billion dollar fleet of helicopters so we can continue to more effectively protect the way of life that seems to have brought the Pacific salmon to the brink of extinction. Can there be any doubt we are living in the "Age of Asininity" (
http://www.thelastwhy.ca/poems/
)?